Brendan’s Alternate Tagline for Judgment Ridge:
Teenagers are the absolute worst.
Quick synopsis:
The story of the murder of Dartmouth professors Half and Susanne Zantop.
Fun Fact Non-History People Will Like:
One of the murders refused to kill a dog. Because, obviously, that would be too far.
Fun Fact for History Nerds:
High school worked really weird up there for a while. You could basically frontload your freshman and sophomore years and then take one or so classes at a time in junior senior year. Thinking back to my high school days, I’d have probably ended up in jail with that much free time on my hands. Not for murder, though.
My Take on Judgment Ridge:
The only thing worse than a hormonal teenager is a hormonal teenager with too much free time. Generally, it usually leads to a litany of petty crimes and binge drinking. In this case, it led to the murder of two beloved professors for… basically no reason whatsoever.
What makes Judgment Ridge a bit different from other true crimes books is the way the killers are slowly revealed. Not their identities, you know them from the beginning of the book. What you don’t know is how they got from somewhat lovable scamps to cold blooded murderers. The book chronicles how almost everyone refused to believe these two teenagers butchered two people. It just made no sense. However, the book slowly pieces everything together to gradually make you realize these two kids were not normal teenagers. They were a dangerous combination which finally went off.
Verdict:
A great true crime book. Buy it here!
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.